Monday, May 24, 2010

The hour of puzzlement is upon us. Hope you kept those scissors. The only direction I'm giving you in this one is: don't move the piece with the blue border. All else is fair game.

Have fun with it. Once the wheels start turning, the answer shouldn't be far away.

(click image to enlarge)

Clarification of blue words since some are hard to read:

you, write, to, solve, you, here, will, then

[blank], [blank], red, [blank], unlearn, pockets, you, read

mind, its, right, [blank], [blank], high, derek, how

[blank], to, [blank], out, to, must, from, need

it, this, [blank], foley, low, end, rose, left

learned, [blank], [blank], kelly, david, those, go, steel

here's, grove, go, to, to, what, thoughts, to

[blank], [blank], that's, then, the, and, [blank], next

Hint #1 (12:10pm PT): The names of the people/characters in the photos are important. If you correctly identify two of them, that should be good enough to eventually deduce the puzzle solution. If you identify more than two, you're in even better shape.

Hint #2 (5:04pm PT): The two on the left are fictional; the two on the right are real.

Pseudo-hint #3 (7:32pm PT): If you think you've solved the puzzle but are a little hesitant because the final step seems to imply there should be a group of players from which you're supposed to choose only one, don't worry. There is only one player in the group to begin with (this hint will make no sense to those who haven't solved the puzzle).

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a current or former MLB player. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

Email us with the first and last name of the player who is the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and

Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

Without a color printer - it'll be much harder to match photo segments in black and white - does anyone know any Mac application that can import this photo, slice it up into squares, and move them around? Probably not, I guess...

There's a Fedex at work in the building where I can go for lunch. I may get a few minutes to make a couple color copies and try to do the thing late this evening, as a late solver (keeping up my habits).

This Fedex office is within sight of the original Kinko's, in Isla Vista, as it happens.

I come here for the baseball nerddom. But for the life of me can't facially recognize [one of the people]. No freaking clue. This person could be sitting right next to me and I wouldn't recognize that person.

I'm concerned that you weren't certain of your answer when you sent it in, although I can see why. That goes against my puzzle philosophy. I will post a comment/pseudo-hint to ensure that if one is correct, they are sure of their answer.

It probably won't help anyone solve the puzzle; it'll just help those who do solve it know they are correct.

Well, I had a lot of fun printing, cutting, and arranging. Also, my wife said I was a dork. I may have resorted to Google Goggles in an attempt to recognize one of the people. (It didn't work.) Now, sans answer, I'm going to go to bed. But I'm going to send a picture of my prettily arranged pieces anyway.